This past weekend, I was driving my 12-year-old daughter to visit a grieving friend. My daughter looked at me with sadness in her eyes and said, “The older I get, the more people I know who have died.” I wish I could protect her from this experience that adults know all too well. The longer we live in this fallen world, the more we feel the sting of suffering and heartbreak.
On those painful days, we can find comfort in the promises of God. We find some of those promises paraphrased by the hymn writer in this fourth verse of “How Firm a Foundation”:
“E’en down to old age all my people shall prove
my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
and when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.”
Like all of us, my daughter is learning that our human relationships change over time, and we can’t always count on the same people to be there for us for decades. But God’s sheltering, compassionate love will never run out or change. As long as we live, God will carry us like lambs in His arms because of His sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love.
“For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Psalm 100:5)
“He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” (Isaiah 40:11)
When the Old Testament talks about God’s love, it uses a Hebrew word translated in our Bibles as “steadfast love.” As we read over and over and over again about God’s steadfast love, we learn that God’s love isn’t capricious. It doesn’t depend on our behavior or circumstances.
God’s steadfast love is sovereign. He chose to love us and sent His Son to prove it. (1 John 4:9-10)
God’s steadfast love is eternal. God’s love never ends, and nothing—not even death—can separate us from it. (Romans 8:38-39)
God’s steadfast love is unchangeable. We can count on His love and faithfulness to remain the same throughout all our days. (Jeremiah 31:3)
No matter what you face this week, you will never outgrow or outlast God’s steadfast love.
** You can read the first three posts in this “How Firm a Foundation” hymn series here, here, and here. **
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